Moby Presents: Alien Sex Party
Picture: C Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Film: D
If Techno isn’t dead yet,
than Alien Sex Party may as well be
the last stop and could possibly do to Moby what Can’t Stop the Music did for The Village People, even if it did not
have the hype, press and budget of that disaster. This is just one insane attempt to get the
consumer to buy something just because it has to do with Moby, but falls flat
on its own face.
In a bizarre attempt to be
like Clerks, the show takes place on
Christmas Eve at an adult video store, where the owner Joe is afraid of his own
merchandise. He is joined by security guards, mad bombers, Trekkies, porn
freaks, porn stars, an employee that rambles on about everything, and a very
promiscuous woman that is not ashamed of being so slutty. Now then, the question is…what is the
point? Well, after this I am not sure
even the people involved really understand that. Instead its one endless parade with a few
musical numbers that seem to promote Moby (the executive producer) who even has
a cameo in this entourage of silliness.
Alien Sex Party tries to be funny, but the only problem is that it comes off looking
bad than funny. Even the charm is lost
by the simple fact that there is no continuity or likable people involved. Everything is a mess and then on top of that
we are supposed to find some sort of purpose behind all this. I suppose that by taking a really deep look
into it that there might be some sort of commentary about the porn industry in
general, but what is the message? Is
this saying that everyone should be happy with their sexuality and be
open? Are there no other ways that
bringing this type of material to life besides parading it around like
art? My same complaint was aimed towards
Larry Clarks 1994 film Kids, which
was a fine film in terms of showcasing the problems with adolescence, but what
help did it offer?
Presented in a TV ratio of
1.33 X 1 the video image is quite average making the production look even
poorer. Even the 5.1 mix is nothing to
write home about as the surrounds are hardly ever engaged with exception of
some music, which are few and far between.
This type of material never fully takes advantage of the 5.1 the way
that it could. I doubt that it was ever
intended for multi-channel to begin with.
Then there are the extras,
which are slightly more interesting than the actual program itself. There are 13 additional tracks from some of
the spotlighted musicians as well as the short film “Space Water Onion” and music
videos from The Pork Guys, Schaumgummi, and The Happiest Guys in the
World. This is certainly one DVD for
those with wild interests. For those
that want more serious work and certainly better music videos check out the
Directors Label series from Palm Picture of Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham,
and Spike Jonze (all reviewed on this site).
- Nate Goss
